1 Corinthians 3:14

If any man's work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward. ABIDE - the testing fire (Matthew 3:11). WHICH HE HATH BUILT THEREUPON - on the foundation. REWARD - wages, as a builder. Converts built on Christ, the foundation, through, his faithfulness, shall be his "crown of rejoicing" (; )....

14._If any man’s work remains, he will receive a reward. _His meaning is, that those are fools who depend on man’s estimation, so as to reckon it enough to be approved by men, for _then only _will the work have praise and recompense — when it has stood the test of the _day of the Lord _Hence he exhorts His true ministers to have an eye to _that day. _For by the word _remains_, he intimates that doctrines fly about as it were in an unsettled state, nay more, like empty bubbles, they glitter for the moment, until they have come to be thoroughly tested. Hence it follows, that we must reckon as nothing all the applauses of the world, the emptiness of which will in a very little be exposed by heaven’s judgment....

10-15 The apostle was a wise master-builder; but the grace of God made him such. Spiritual pride is abominable; it is using the greatest favours of God, to feed our own vanity, and make idols of ourselves. But let every man take heed; there may be bad building on a good foundation. Nothing must be laid upon it, but what the foundation will bear, and what is of a piece with it. Let us not dare to join a merely human or a carnal life with a Divine faith, the corruption of sin with the profession of Christianity. Christ is a firm, abiding, and immovable Rock of ages, every way able to bear all the weight that God himself or the sinner can lay upon him; neither is there salvation in any other. Leave out the doctrine of his atonement, and there is no foundation for our hopes. But of those who rest on this foundation, there are two sorts. Some hold nothing but the truth as it is in Jesus, and...

Verse 1 Corinthians 3:14. _IF ANY MAN'S WORK ABIDE_] Perhaps there is here an allusion to the purifying of different sorts of vessels under the law. All that could stand the fire were to be purified by the fire; and those which could not resist the action of the _fire_ were to be purified by _water_, Numbers 31:23. The _gold, silver_, and _precious stones_, could stand the fire; but the _wood, hay_, and _stubble_, must be necessarily consumed. So, in that great and terrible day of the Lord, all _false doctrine_, as well as the _system_ that was to _pass away_, should be made sufficiently manifest; and God would then show that the _Gospel_, and that alone, was that system of doctrine which he should bless and protect, and none other....

IF ANY MAN’S WORK ABIDE ... - If it shall appear that he hast taught the true doctrines of Christianity, and inculcated right practices and views of piety, and himself cherished right feelings: if the trial of the great Day, when the real qualities of all objects shall be known, shall show this. HE SHALL RECEIVE A REWARD - According to the nature of his work. See the note on 1 Corinthians 3:8. This refers, I suppose, to the proper rewards on the Day of Judgment, and not to the honors and the recompense which he may receive in this world. If all that he has taught and done shall be proved to have been genuine and pure, then his reward shall be in proportion....

EXPOSITION 1 CORINTHIANS 3:1 _The carnal conceit of the spiritually immature._ 1 CORINTHIANS 3:1 I… COULD NOT SPEAK UNTO YOU AS UNTO SPIRITUAL. Though softened by the word brethren, there was a crushing irony of reproof in these words: "You thought yourselves quite above the need of my simple teaching. You were looking down on me from the whole height of your inferiority. The elementary character of my doctrine was after all the necessary consequence of your own incapacity for anything more profound." AS UNTO CARNAL. The true reading here is _sarkinois, _fleshen, not _sarkikois, _fleshly, or carnal; the later and severer word is perhaps first used in...

IF ANY MAN'S WORK ABIDE,.... That is, if any minister's doctrine will bear the test of daylight, to be looked into, and abide the fire of the word; as gold, silver, and precious stones will, or such doctrines as are comparable to them, which will shine the brighter for being tried by this fire: WHICH HE HATH BUILT THEREUPON; upon the foundation Christ, in entire consistence with, and proportion to it, and highly becoming it: HE SHALL RECEIVE A REWARD; either from the churches of Christ here, who shall honour and respect him for his faithful labours in the ministry; or from Christ hereafter, who will say, well done, good and faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord....

1. _And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ._ The church at Corinth consisted of persons of large education and great abilities. It was one of those churches that had given up the one-man system, where everybody talked as he liked a very knowing church, and a church of Christians, too; but for all that. Christian babies. And though they thought themselves to be so great, yet the apostle says that he never spoke to them as to spiritual: he kept to the simple elements regarding the carnal part as being too much in them as yet, to be able to drink down spiritual things. 1 Corinthians 3:2. _I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able._ How grateful we ought to be that there is milk, and that this milk

REWARD God, in the New Testament Scriptures, offers to the lost, salvation, and, for the faithful service of the saved, rewards. The passages are easily distinguished by remembering that salvation is invariably spoken of as a free gift, (for example), (John 4:10); (Romans 6:23); (Ephesians 2:8); (Ephesians 2:9), while rewards are earned by works; (Matthew 10:42); (Luke 19:17); ...

CHAPTER 3 _ 1. The Carnal state of the Corinthians. (1 Corinthians 3:1)._ 2. The Workmen and their Work. (1 Corinthians 3:10). 3. The Church the Temple of God. (1 Corinthians 3:16). 4. Warning against Deception and Glorying in Men. (1 Corinthians 3:18). Their condition is next uncovered. They did not depend on the Spirit of God and did not enjoy the hidden wisdom and walk in it. They were carnal, mere babes in Christ, in the sense that their growth, their spiritual development had been arrested. Carnal (fleshly) is not equivalent to “natural.” The belie